ExoMars |
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Aug 25 2005, 11:22 AM
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4180840.stm
Europe has fixed on a concept for its next mission to land on the Red Planet. It aims to send a single robot rover to the Martian surface along with another, stationary, science package. |
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Apr 25 2006, 02:51 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2454 Joined: 8-July 05 From: NGC 5907 Member No.: 430 |
The technology for this "lab on a chip" sounds amazing, but since it seems
pretty clear that any existing life on Mars is probably deep underground, what can they hope to find with it just from analysing the surface? Waste products from the creatures that drift upwards? Dead bodies? No, I am not being facetious. Life-Marker Chip Planned For ESA Mars Lander http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Life_Mar...ars_Lander.html -------------------- "After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined,
and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance. I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard, and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft." - Henry David Thoreau, November 15, 1853 |
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Apr 25 2006, 08:43 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 688 Joined: 20-April 05 From: Sweden Member No.: 273 |
The technology for this "lab on a chip" sounds amazing, but since it seems pretty clear that any existing life on Mars is probably deep underground, what can they hope to find with it just from analysing the surface? Waste products from the creatures that drift upwards? Dead bodies? No, I am not being facetious. A great deal. There has been a lot of progress in recent years in identifying bio-marker molecules that indicate the one-time existance of a variety of life forms (cyanobacteria, methanogens, eucaryotes etc) and which are stable enough to last billions of years here on Earth. The main problem is the possibly strongly oxidizing chemistry of Martian topsoil, so it would probably be advisable to crush rocks and analyze the interior. tty |
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